MPA/MPP programmes and the future of work: Does MPA curriculum align with civil service requirements

In recent decades civil services worldwide have experienced exogenous forces that are transforming their work and workplace. In turn, these changes are altering the skills set associated with civil service employment. As professional degrees oriented towards careers in civil service these changes can have important ramifications on the curriculum. Focusing on member schools of the Canadian Association of Programmes in Public Administration (CAPPA) our research explores whether and how the postgraduate public administration and public policy programmes (MPA and MPP) curriculum has adapted to changes in the natural labour market for their graduates. Our threefold findings are that: A lack of alignment exists between the MPA/MPP currently taught and the requirements of civil services; a recognition by programme heads that some degree of curriculum alignment is indeed necessary; and that engagement between schools and civils services exists, but is typically informal and conducted through intermediary bodies. Our findings further highlight the necessity for civil services to engage with MPA and MPP programmes to ensure that future civil servants possess the skills relevant at a time of significant change in the nature of work.

Is Vaginal Birth without an Episiotomy a Rarity in the 21st Century? Cross-Sectional Studies in Southern Poland

Purpose: The objective of this study was to analyze the birth methods (vaginal, with medical intervention, or by Cesarean Section, CS) predominant in the Malopolska province, to describe the risk factors for non-physiologically normal births, and to characterize the demographics of women who give birth and selected parameters of maternity care. Methods: The retrospective analysis was conducted on data collected in 2013–2014 in the framework of the current activity of the Polish National Health Fund and encompassed 68,894 childbirths from 29 hospitals in 21 towns in the south of Poland. Results: In the study period, 38,366 (56.5%) of the births in Malopolska were vaginal, and only 22,839 (22.9%) of births were considered ‘normal’, without an episiotomy. The remaining were births by CS (29,551; 43.5%). Factors increasing the chances of having a normal childbirth in comparison with birth by CS were as follows: days free from work, living in a village, woman’s age > 35 years, and the hospital’s referral level (primary or secondary). Women aged 18–34 years and those living in a village/town were more frequently admitted directly into the birth room without a stay in the maternity units. There was a high level of medicalization of births in Malopolska: natural labour and childbirth were rare. It seems that efforts to increase natural birth rates should be directed toward both reducing the CS rate as well as increasing vaginal birth without an episiotomy.

About transport costs calculation on the Transsiberial railway

The problem of optimal distribution of train and cargo traffic along parallel lines in the Trans-Siberian transport corridor of the Russian Federation is considered. This problem is closely interconnected with a problem of definition and optimisation of transportation expenses on the Trans-Siberian highway. The economic and mathematical model for determining costs for particular works in each type of line plants (a structural unit) in a railway rather permanent natural labour, material, energy and other norms for transport polygonon are used is offered. This model may serve as the basic part of an automated information system of cost planning on different levels of managing the transportation process.

Foreword to Childbirth with Confidence

In his foreword to Prunella Briance’s book Childbirth with Confidence, on natural childbirth and the work of Grantly Dick-Read, Winnicott addresses the fact that the great majority of women can have a natural labour and birth and that, although medical interventions are important in the three percent of births where something goes wrong, the healthy mother in labour does not respond well to the medical techniques which are needed in cases where there are problems at birth.

LABOUR IN THE RABBIT: EFFECT OF ELECTRICAL STIMULATION APPLIED TO THE INFUNDIBULUM AND MEDIAN EMINENCE

SUMMARY Labour was induced by electrical stimulation of the infundibulum and median eminence in the conscious prepartum rabbit. The stimulus was applied for 20 s through a chronically implanted platinum—rhodium electrode and consisted of 1 mA biphasic pulses at 50/s. The first visible signs of labour occurred 1·5–3·0 min after stimulation and activity usually ceased within 25 min. This was sometimes sufficient for the delivery of the entire litter. The litters ranged from 5 to 11 pups. Frequently, labour ceased before all the young were expelled, but labour was easily restarted by a further period of stimulation. There were cases in which labour was restarted on more than four occasions before parturition reached completion. Parturition was sometimes left in a suspended state for more than 24 h. The viability of the pups was not adversely influenced by the protracted nature of such parturitions. Stimulation was most effective at inducing labour when applied close to the predicted time of parturition and the treatment was almost totally ineffective when applied more than 48 h before the predicted time. Nest-building was not precipitated by the premature birth of the young and sometimes occurred a day or more after parturition. The stimulation parameters used for the induction of labour caused large milk-ejection responses when applied to the same animals during lactation. Some of these milk-ejection responses were equal to the release of more than 100 mu. oxytocin. These results suggest that the rapid expulsion of the pups during natural labour in the rabbit could be the result of a sudden and very large release of oxytocin.